Description
Book SynopsisTextiles play a decisive role in history: attire not only indicates status, gender, ethnicity, and religion but illustrates how such boundaries are continuously being negotiated, shifted, and recreated. Fashionable Traditions captures the complex reality of Asian handmade textile production and consumption. From traditionalist discourse and cultural authenticity to fashion and market trends, the contributors to this collection demonstrate the multilayered influence of often contradictory forces. In-depth, ethnographic case studies reveal the entangled relationships between local artisans, external interventions, and consumers, while acknowledging the broader frameworks in which such relationships are situated. Together these stories offer a vivid account of the socio-economic, political, and cultural dynamics in various parts of Asia and emphasize that fashion is neither a Western prerogative nor do its roots reside solely in the West.
Trade ReviewThis is an intrepid anthology. Even as Asian indigenous textile makers try out a multiplicity of strategies to find a way for their art/craft to survive in the global world, the contributors to this volume explore new frameworks to describe their ingenuity. 'Fashionalization', 'modernization', 'trivialization', '(de)commodification', 'heritagization', all typify trajectories of reinvention, external mediation and experimentation. The usually unseen struggles of indigenous textile producers deserve more spokespeople like these. -- Sandra Niessen, Anthropologist
Fashionable Traditions offers significant new insights into the relationship between Asian indigenous textile cultures and their assimilation into the world of global consumption, from heritage industries to fashion. The authors bring anthropological and historical perspectives that are based on original and extensive field research. The volume adds considerably to our understanding of the multiple roles of handmade textiles in a modern world. -- Ruth Barnes, Thomas Jaffe Curator of Indo-Pacific Art, Yale University Art Gallery
For anyone interested in the changes taking place where hand-made textiles are produced, this book offers a range of insights into the processes at work. The authors have all produced intelligent, thoughtful studies that are well worth reading. This book makes a valuable contribution to knowledge about the interplay between "tradition" and "fashion" in textile production in the modern world.
* Southeast Asian Studies *
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables
Preface
Introduction: Asian Handmade Textiles as Fashionable Traditions
Ayami Nakatani
Part 1: Fashion Dynamics in Tradition
Chapter 1
Ikat Patterns in Flores, Indonesia, and the Global Fashion Trajectory
Willemijn de Jong
Chapter 2
“New Style” of Ethnic Clothing: Dress between Tradition and Fashion among the Hmong in Yunnan, China
Chie Miyawaki
Chapter 3
The Pashmina Shawl: Continuity and Transformation from Ladakh to Kashmir
Monisha Ahmed
Part 2: Politics of Heritage and Beyond
Chapter 4
Listing Cultures: Politics of Boundaries and Heritagization of Handwoven Textiles in Indonesia
Ayami Nakatani
Chapter 5
Between Culture and Technology: “Theme” Saris and the Graphic Representation of Heritage in Tamil Nadu, India
Aarti Kawlra
Chapter 6
“Heritagization” as a Double-edged Sword: The Dilemma of Nishijin Silk Weaving in Kyoto, Japan
Okpyo Moon
Chapter 7
Inheriting Weaving Knowledge in Depopulated Communities: Conservation of Wisteria Fiber Textiles in Kyoto, Japan
Miwa Kanetani
Part 3: Contested Valorization and the Role of Mediators
Chapter 8
Branding Tsumugi Kimono in Japan: Kimono Magazines as Mediators between Consumers and the “Mingei” Movement
Seiko Sugimoto
Chapter 9
“Crafts” to “Art”: A Trajectory of Aboriginal Women’s Weavings in Arnhem Land, Australia
Sachiko Kubota
Chapter 10
Translocal Ikat in Contemporary Bali, Indonesia: Imagining Heritage, Imagining Modernities in Ikat Production and Marketing
Susan Rodgers
Part 4: Ambivalent Encounters with Global Consumers
Chapter 11
Embroidering Development: The Mutwa and Rann Utsav in Kutch, India
Michele A. Hardy
Chapter 12
Strategic Choices of Techniques: Dyed and Printed Textiles for Goddess Rituals in Gujarat, Western India
Yoko Ueba
Chapter 13
Patchworking in Tradition: The Trends of Fashionable Carpets from Turkey
Ulara Tamura
Chapter 14
What Do Handwoven Textiles Do? Constellation of Things and the Primal History among Non-Weaving People in Flores, Eastern Indonesia
Eriko Aoki
Index
About the Contributors
